It is coming in the next few days as I spent this past weekend visiting several local RCG clubs looking for a new field to fly at. The problem I have currently is the clubs I belong to now have too rough a field to ROG and my EDFs are getting bigger and I do not want to hand launch 3 pound models and frankly my bungee scares the hell out of me as I pull that bungee cord back. I do not mind belly landing just need to ROG to get into the air.

The good news is I flew at a field yesterday that is perfect. They have a 100 x 1000 grass filed that is rolled with a regular old street roller multiple times during the season and the grass is cut as low as they can go and it is like a fairway. ROG was a breeze and I am very excited as I wanted to put the gear in my XB-70 but had no idea where to fly it. I was having bad luck with retracts on my other models. I tried landing my RC Lander Panther on grass as the one field I fly at and the nose wheel ripped out, so I knew I had to find a new place and I did. I am all excited now!

I have the XB70 out of the box, and I have decide to go no landing gear. I personally do not think this plane will last many flights, as the foam seems kind of flexible and weak to me and not as dense as other foams on models so I am not going to spend the time on retracts and the four servos needed. The bottom of the fuselage has cutouts for the retracts and my hand spans across nicely. So belly lander it will be.

Curtis from EasyTiger had one at E-Jets a couple weeks ago and I agree--very brittle looking and feeling as I handled it. His wingtips had been reglued several times it looked like and the retracts looked pretty "iffy" to me as well. If someone in the states had airframes for say $60-70 shipped I might give one a whirl as I love the XB, but $100 for one from China is too much for me. Besides, Don will sell me his when he tires of it--right Don?

I am almost tired of it already and I have not built it! I was fiddling with the stock fan unit a little yesterday and it SUCKS, vibrates like mad. So I then was setting up a BI3600 and HET 6904 fan and now I am afraid anything over 500 watts will blow it apart unless carbon and stuff is added to it. I was all psyched yesterday when I started working on it and the more I fiddle with it the more I dislike it!

Ok progress as we speak. I tossed the stock EDF fan unit as it vibrated so badly it was not worth tryng to use, I could see the fan spin off center as it rotated. So I grabbed a 6 bladed 70mm fan (I happen to have a bunch of so why not) and tried it out. I put in a 3200 KV of the new Wicked Plus motor and on 4S I got about 700 watts settling to 650 ish which I think is perfect for this plane. The Wicked Plus has a 1/8" shaft (for now at least until I get new adapters made). The 70mm fan I have is 4mm but it just so happens 4mm is .1574" and 5/32" is .1563", so I used a piece of 1/8" ID x 5/32" OD brass tube and cut a short piece then slotted it with my dremel. The used some green loctite then placed it on the shaft then tightened the 4mm collet down with the rotor. I let it dry a little then spun it up and it holds very well so I am happy. Then I balanced the fan and not it is ready to mount.

Next I installed the elevon servos, I used 12" extensions which I think will be long enough. I also had to remove the plugs and solder the servo leads together as the plugs fill up the wire channel and the motor wire will not fit.